Gangsaws for cutting wood cants and flitches (collectively herein workpieces) into boards are common in the wood processing industry. Gangsaws have an upstream infeed and an opposite downstream outfeed. Bed rolls and hold down rolls clamp the lower and upper surfaces of the workpiece in the respectively infeed and outfeed. A saw arbor, containing ganged circular saws, is rotatably mounted within a sawbox between the infeed and the outfeed. The workpiece is cut into boards in the sawbox prior to exiting through the outfeed.
Gangsaws require regular maintenance such as adjustment or replacement of the circular saws. In the past it has been difficult for gangsaw maintenance personnel to reach the middle section of the gangsaw to access and service the saws and guides. To partially overcome this, it is known in the prior art to hinge that portion of the infeed of the gangsaw above the bed roll level so that it may be opened in an upstream direction about the hinges by actuation of air or hydraulic cylinders. Once open, a maintenance workman climbs into the opening under the open, hinged infeed, sits on one of the bed rolls and proceeds to attend to maintenance of the saws and guides.
To change the saws and guides typically involves loosening and moving them sideways, that is, laterally to the direction of flow of the workpiece. Accordingly, the maintenance workman is typically seated in a crouched position on the bed rolls while attempting to move heavy loads sideways. This arrangement is known to be the cause of injury specifically back and neck injury. Where such gangsaws are coupled with chipping heads, on the infeed side of the saw arbor, servicing is equally awkward. It is therefore an object of this invention to allow for improved posture during such maintenance.